A World of Reincarnates
by Krystie.T
Summary: What would happen if everyone in the world died and were reincarnated? What if only one boy knows this most precious secret? Who would he tell? What would he do? I don't own Naruto, most of the plot, or reincarnation ideas and beliefs.First FF.
1. Meet Naruto Namikaze

Ch. 1

Meet the Crew: Naruto Namikaze

A bright blonde boy of 9 walked on the sidewalk to the bus stop. He is an Academy student (telling from his uniform) waiting for his chance to be a ninja. It was a normal routine for him: get up, freshen up, eat breakfast (surprisingly it wasn't ramen most of the time), walk to the bus stop, ride it to school, meet up with his best buddy, go to classroom 7, wait for the other students and Iruka-sensei to come in class. Today was nothing special. He wasn't the top student, but he knew his stuff. All of his classmates and everyone in the world were like him, reincarnates of brave warriors, yet only he knew this. They were not the exact same but similar to the originals.

Sasuke Uchiha is his best friend. The two would always go where Sasuke's fan girls didn't or couldn't go to. Sasuke and Naruto, like the originals, were both orphans. Naruto is still the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and Sasuke still has a murderous brother, but unlike last time, Sasuke wasn't after revenge, but redemption for his brother. The entire family was killed and no one survived except Sasuke who was at Sunday church. Sure Sasuke was still cold, but not as much as he was before. Naruto and Sasuke met a day after the Uchiha Massacre when Sasuke was found in Naruto's "usual spot" aka the swing under the tree. The swing was always a place of thought and of some comfort to the boys. Sasuke only opened up to Naruto, and anyone who was close to Naruto as well, like Iruka, the ramen stand people, and the current Hokage.

Since the people wanted to name their leader a Hokage, they redid the system so that it was on the fourth Hokage, but as before he died and sacrificed himself. The Hokage and current ruler of Fire country, also a reincarnate, was Sarutobi, known as the Professor. He gave Naruto his needs. Sasuke met the Hokage before but found more from "the old man" as Naruto called him. The deceased 4th Hokage was Naruto's dad who had sealed a smaller and "chibi-fied" Kyuubi in his son. It was still just as powerful as ever, making Naruto whole. Of course unlike last time Naruto kept his father's name, Namikaze. He had a mother who had to take care of her own country. She promised to come back alive in time for his 13th birthday. He now has his half-sister who will be coming with her to Fire country. Other than that he was alone, looking forward to the day he meets his family.

As he got on the bus, Sasuke spotted Naruto, who was looking out the window as usual. He mentally noted to ask about what he was thinking about this time. Naruto was a lot quieter when around people. He wasn't very loud, yet when he tries to prove something he starts getting as loud as a traffic-jammed freeway.

"Ohayo, Naruto," he said as he sat down in the aisle seat.

"Ohayo," Naruto responded.

"What's on your mind this time?" asked Sasuke. Everyday Naruto was asked this question, but like always he kept quiet. "Come on, tell me. I won't think of you differently… Just talk to me."

Usually Naruto would stay quiet but this time he said, "Okay, but maybe after school in the usual spot." The bus stopped. He then did an infamous foxy grin and said "But first we have to go to school. We might be early, but I think its best after school." So they got off the bus and headed to class.

On their way, shouts for help were heard. Looking at each other and nodding, they raced to the source. It turned out one of the fan girls were bullying a pink-haired girl with a wide forehead. As Sasuke sweet talked them to go back to class, Naruto asked the girl if she was alright.

"Why did you help me?" asked the girl, who introduced herself as Sakura Haruno when Sasuke came back. "Most people let me be bullied. Well, with the exception of Ino. I don't see what makes you guys different."

"We are different Sakura-san. We are Naruto Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha. You might have heard about us. Even if you didn't, we don't like bullies."

"Ano, you mean that is the famous Sasuke? I thought he would be dreamier." Naruto chuckled at that while Sasuke just scoffed and mumbled something that sounded like "darn rulers" and "fan girls don't even know what I looked like". Sakura, realizing her mistake tried apologizing, only to be interrupted.

"See, I told you we are different," said Naruto. "Don't worry about Sasuke; he's just afraid the fan girls will ambush him when he goes inside a small room." Sakura and Naruto stated giggling. At this Sasuke glared at him, only to start chuckling with Naruto.

"Sakura-san, would you like to join us afterschool on the swing on the tree behind the Academy? I think both you and Sasuke would find what I say interesting," invited Naruto, giving her a bright smile.

"Actually, I would love to. Can I bring a friend?" asked Sakura.

"Hmm… depends on who this friend is. Does she happen to be Ino Yamanaka? The florist's daughter?"

"How'd you know?" asked a shocked Sakura. None of the boys were supposed to know.

"I already know you better than you think Sakura-san. Although she is quite the gal, I am going to be telling you a top secret fact. No one, not even the Kages have realized this yet. I am going to tell you something else, too, but this time, all the adults know about this. Is that alright with you Sakura-san?"

She thought about it for a minute, and then replied "Its fine. I won't tell her. However, if it is that important tell the Hokage."

"I agree, Naruto. Whatever you have been thinking might effect this country, maybe even the world."

"No worries, I will. Ojii-san knows me and I wasn't even thinking about not telling him," replied Naruto. "How about we get to class? Maybe something interesting will happen."

"Sakura-Chan! Come on! Our perfect record will be in jeopardy!" yelled the voice of a young girl.

Sakura yelled she was coming, thanked the boys one last time, and said she'd be there.

"Let's get going," said Sasuke. He was a bit fazed at the importance of the revelation, but didn't like showing it.

"Yeah, lets."


	2. A Dog's Nose Knows

**A/N: Sorry I am taking so long with this story. I have been doing a lot of projects that need to get done as soon as possible**** Plus, it is my first ****fanfic**** Again I am really sorry.**

Ch. 2: A Dog's Nose Knows

Sasuke knew that today seemed peculiar, but was glad his friend was finally opening up. He didn't know how, but he got a raw feeling that today was going to be a good day. As usual they were the first ones there. He plopped down his stuff on his desk in the fourth row.

Naruto sat in the first row, mostly because Iruka-sensei was very suspicious that Naruto would try to do a prank on someone. Before meeting Sasuke, Naruto was_ the_ mastermind in pranks. He used to do a lot of pranks almost every hour. After meeting Sasuke he stopped. Yet Iruka still had his suspicions. He knew what it felt like to be left an orphan. Perhaps the main reason Naruto stopped was to spend time with Sasuke so that they wouldn't be alone anymore.

Sasuke walked to the front and the boys talked casually. One-by-one, people started coming in. When it was 1-minute to go, everyone got to their seats.

Iruka had a strange feeling today. He liked Naruto and was glad Naruto was making friends. Something seemed odd, though. While heading to the office he spotted Naruto helping the Haruno girl out. He knew that the Haruno's were very prejudice. When he saw them laughing together, his heart seemed to do a flip. They talked for a while and then left for their different rooms. The bell was about to ring, he needed to get there fast.

---- Time-skip: Lunch ----

They set their backpacks down on the tree

"Well Naruto, you didn't happen to bring ramen with you, do you?" asked Sasuke, sarcastically, opening a cap and drinking his tea. Yet he was not prepared for Naruto's answer today.

"Nope."

At this he choked on his tea and looked at Naruto. What Naruto said was true, he didn't bring any ramen. In fact, Naruto wasn't eating anything at all. This worried Sasuke. Naruto would never come to school without ramen or anything!

"Umm… you want to share some of my food, Naruto?"

"Only if it is OK with you, Sasuke," replied a smiling Naruto. They ate quietly. "_Strange," _thought Sasuke. "_It reminds me of when Naruto and I first ate lunch… together… here. That was the day we became friends and… now I get it"_ Suddenly Sasuke remembered something and smirked. He knew what was going on now.

"It's been a year, hasn't it Naruto?" he said.

"Yup! It took you a while to notice it though, Sasuke. I had to make lunch seem like déjà vu so that you would remember." Naruto was finally smiling his infamous foxy grins. They both laughed out loud. It was at this time that two girls approached the happy boys. One of them had met the boys earlier this morning. Another was the girl's best friend.

"See, Ino? These are the guys that helped me out today. They saved me from Ami and them," said an excited Sakura, jumping slightly.

"Ohayo Sakura-chan!" said the boys in perfect unison. This time Naruto spoke alone. "Hey Ino, is that you?"

"NARUTO!!! I GOT WORRIED SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU!!! I TOLD YOU TO VISIT!!! YOU ALWAYS VISIT!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!" yelled Ino, who, unknowingly, made him temporarily loose his sense of hearing.

"Sorry, but I was too busy running away from you-know-who's. You know how it is like for me." He shook his head and got his hearing back.

"Why those temes! I'm going to beat the whole lot of them, you'll see!" shouted Ino. Sasuke shook his head, not liking the fact Naruto was still getting ambushed by missing-nin from Konoha. Sakura was just plain confused. She opened her mouth but before she could say anything, Naruto gave her a look that said "I'll tell you later" and stared at the endless sky.

"Hey Ino, I promise to go this weekend, alright?" he said with a heartfelt smile, immediately changing the atmosphere.

"You better! And on your way there, can you pick up some lunch? It better not be ramen! You know how much I despise ramen! And another thing…" Ino kept on ranting on and on, which was getting the attention of two boys who decided to go to a walk while waiting for the academy bell to ring.

"Hey Shikamaru, that sounds like Ino. Should we see what's up?"

"So troublesome. Why would I want to see her? She'll end up taking out the rest of her orders on us."

"Let's just see what's up and then leave. Is it alright with you?"

"Fine, but it will still be troublesome. The boys hid behind a corner and saw Ino yelling at a kid with spiky blonde hair who seemed to be listening to Ino. Shikamaru was getting rather anxious to go. He spotted two others. One he recognized as Sakura Haruno. She stuck around Ino a lot. The other was Sasuke Uchiha. Both of them were talking cheerfully to one another. If there was one thing that confused Shikamaru the most in this queer scene right now it was what Sasuke was doing with two of his fan girls and one unknown person. He decided it was time to leave when

"Okay, you can stop hiding at that corner now. There is nothing special here." It was that unknown blonde kid. Troublesome. Simply troublesome.

"Hey Shikamaru and Chouji! What are you two doing up here?!" yelled a still enthusiastic Ino.

"We could hear you at the other side of the Academy building. What do you expect?" said Shikamaru in his lazy voice. Ino was about to scream at them again when Naruto cut her off.

"I don't believe we've met you two before. My name is Naruto Namikaze, can just call me Naruto. I don't use formalities." While saying this with a big grin on his face, he pointed to himself. Sasuke just grinned a bit and mumbled "Sasuke Uchiha" before getting pulled into another conversation with Sakura.

"Please to meet you I'm Shikamaru Nara and my friend here is Chouji Akamichi," replied Shikamaru. Chouji smiled and then looked at his surroundings. They talked about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, and even their dreams for the future. Suddenly, the bell rung. It was time to head back to class. Sasuke and Naruto said good-bye to their new friends and went to their classroom.

"Well class, today we are going to learn about some history." Groans were heard all around the room. Iruka decided to get to the point instead of dragging it on. "Don't worry, this is a new lesson." He saw the class bolt up. He smiled mentally and continued. "We are going to teach you about the previous ninja period. It had a lot of our tools and inventions, but we are better equipped, however there have been very few records over them. Yesterday it came to the Hokage's attention that they have found the Rokudaime's secret journal." Unknown to the rest of the class, Naruto tensed. Perhaps he should have informed the Hokage beforehand. His journal, although not including names, still had is old name on there, plus a picture of himself. He hoped the Sandaime didn't give the book to Iru-

"He trusted the class with this book to give a lesson on it," said Iruka, holding the dusty, old book, and smiling at all the mesmerized gazes set upon it. Naruto mentally kicked himself for causing his own bad luck and acted mesmerized by the book as so that he didn't raise any suspicion. "This book doesn't state any names, except for a smudged name. So far, all that we can decipher out of it is 'Rokudaime' and 'Uzumaki'. The picture of him is ruined and we can't see what he looked like." At this point, Naruto was a little bit more relaxed. But it wasn't over. "We did, however, get a good look at the Hokage Monument at the time. If you remember what you studied, that monument was destroyed during the Last Shinobi War of that time period. What we found out has startled us." Naruto was feeling that sense of worry again. "I'll let you pass the book around. If you drop the book or ruin it in anyway, you and the rest of the class are responsible and we may never get a chance like this again. Kiba Inuzaka and his dog Akamaru, who was on top of Kiba's head, were the first one in row one, so they were the first to look at the picture. He was smiling broadly when he received the book, and then it turned to a look of surprise.

"That looks just like _our _Yondaime! It's like his picture was taken on top of _our _Hokage building in front of _our_ Hokage monument!" he yelled the class was startled and became quite anxious to see that book.

"Now, now settle down, settle down. Kiba, it states quite clearly in the picture caption that the monument and Hokage building was destroyed. We simply rebuilt the building and our Shodaime recreated the mountain. According to the journal, it says that the Shodaime of their time was able to create a mountain of his own. We can assume where this is going, ne?" said Iruka with the tone he used for all lectures. Akamaru took a good sniff of the book. His face showed surprise. Naruto was getting worried, but he showed no emotion other than his mask of anticipation. Akamaru discreetly looked at Naruto and nodded his head. He remembered.


	3. The Secret is Out!

Ch. 3: The Secret Is Out!

Naruto Namikaze didn't know what to do. If he used those eyes here, he'd be sure to grab attention and there would be chaos. Iruka would tell the Sandaime and the Sandaime would freak out, too. Akamaru was a smart dog and he noticed Naruto did not wish to speak with him yet, so he continued to look like he didn't notice anything. The journal was passed on. When it was his turn, he wanted to see the amount of damage done to his journal. Flipping through pages, he noticed that his journal had been well preserved. The only thing that was spoiled was, of course, the picture, which looked lie it had been washed away with water, a mystery to even him. After another look at the journal, he passed it on to Shino; the Aburame clan heir was as stoic and silent as ever.

This Shino reincarnate, although very alike in looks and personality, was slightly more open, if not too many of the other reincarnates, then at least to Naruto. Shino was always so difficult for Naruto to understand. Although he has continued to be quite a mystery even to this day, he seems to carry a little more emotion, a little bit lighter of an aura.

Meeting the "new" Shino was quite a surprise to Naruto. He met him on the streets of a rundown and overall unfriendly neighborhood, the place where Naruto lived as a kid. It was only a ten minute walk to the Hokage Tower, and ninja speed made it a really quick trip, but it was dangerous and full of drug dealers and gangs. Although he only lived on the edge, keeping himself safe was a priority. So meeting Shino before going to the academy in the worst part of Konoha was an obvious shock.

Anyways, he and Shino bumped into each other when Naruto was on his way to buy some art tools, since he was particularly bored most of the afternoon. Shino was on his way to the forest to collect data for studying the kikai bugs. They both turned the same corner going opposite directions, going at a quick pace subconsciously. Naruto fell down backwards, not able to register what had just happened and Shino was taken by surprise and took a few steps back, catching himself before he fell.

Naruto got up, apologized, and was about to zip by, but was stopped by Shino before he could escape. The conversation they had was basically about how there was something strange and oddly familiar to Shino about Naruto and Naruto lying about and denying every bit (but he was failing considerably). Eventually, the conversation began to take a turn towards how people reacted to them. Shino said that although the Aburame Clan is a well-respected and noble clan, people deemed them "weird" since bugs live in their bodies. Naruto said that people tend to avoid him as much as possible, with the exception of a few people, and he didn't quite know why. Although they respected him for being the son of a Hokage, they feared that he may be to powerful or out of control in the future (of course, he never mentioned Kyuubi). Since then, the two stood up for each other, even though they weren't really close enough to be called "friends", they were more like colleagues.

Naruto's Journal was passed from one corner to the opposite corner of the room within a span of 20 minutes.

"Good, now that you are all done, let us continue. The Rokudaime said that when he was a kid, he was treated fairly poorly and didn't know why until he was 12, not stating why. He even stated that the villagers would ignore him. According to the book, a few people were really nice and told him all about what the Hokage would do. He then found inspiration and decided that he wanted to become a Hokage, to gain respect and protect those precious to him. He eventually does, of course, otherwise he wouldn't have written this journal!" says Iruka sensei, earning a few chuckles at the last comment. Suddenly a hand rose up.

"Iruka-sensei, the description of the Rokudaime sounds a lot like Naruto! He's always telling us his dream is to become Hokage to protect his loved ones! Wouldn't it be weird if the Rokudaime Hokage was related to Naruto?"

The class thought for a while. Naruto was surprised. He couldn't help do anything to hide it. It was a student that who was able to figure out that much. Everyone stared at him. The negative attention was getting on his nerves. Iruka saw this and quickly changed the subject. Shino, through concern, patted Naruto's shoulder. Naruto looked up and smiled at him and Iruka. Iruka chose to pretend not to look, but winked at Naruto once the idea was thrown out the window.

The class ended shortly and the school day was finally over. Akamaru waited outside as Kiba went to the restroom. Naruto coaxed him to come and before Akamaru could pounce on him he closed his muzzle. After seeing if everything was all clear he let the dog go, who did exactly as expected, pouncing on Naruto and licking him all over his face. Once he let go, he told Akamaru to go back and pretend he still didn't remember. Akamaru settled down, soon after running to the door. Right on time, Kiba came out and took Akamaru home.

Naruto walked over to the tree, Sasuke was already there. While waiting for Sakura, they set up a bet on who would ask Hinata Hyuuga on a date and be successful, or if she accepted both boys, who she would go out with first. Naruto bet he would be the first to get a date and Sasuke said that Hinata wouldn't want to go out with Naruto first because she'd need expirience. So when Hinata came to the tree, she was asked out on a date by both boys, and as it ended up, Sasuke got the second schedule, it was agreed to be as friends only. Unfortunately, Sasuke never bet or witnessed a bet with Naruto before and bet his prized guitar, which won him many talent shows, first place. In his last life, Naruto was forced to become Tsunande's personal gambler when she found out about his talent. He only got ten percent of his winnings and even though he liked to gamble a lot and won up to thousands of money each time, he ended up only getting about $500 maximum. Compared to all of his winning money, it seemed very little and it upset him that "the old hag" used him for so long. He also had started liking Hinata after she confessed to him when Konoha was being invaded. After the chaos was finally over, he asked her out on a date to get to know her better. They got married and had a kid named Kenj Uzumaki-Hyuuga, who was in a battle of what his last name should be. To the higher-ups or during bussiness affairs, like the returned Uchiha Clan or the Hyuuga elders, he was a Hyuuga, but to all his friends and family, he was an Uzumaki. The young boy was eventually added in as Kenji Uzumaki-Hyuuga on his birth certificate.

Naruto was still alert, even after strolling on memory lane. It was because of this that he was able to hear a small rustle. Looking around, he saw nothing, but after searching for a chakra signature, he found out it was Sakura, who was behind Sasuke, ready to pounce him while he wasn't looking. Naruto smiled, Sakura saw the smile, and he looked at her, but immediately gave her thumbs up and did nothing to acknowledge her presence to Sasuke. He saw a bucket, some rope, and a bunch of ice in the bucket. When everything was finished, Sakura pounced on Sasuke who fell down on the floor, rolling onto a trap. While trying to stand up, he tripped on rope, which activated the third part of the trap and a bunch of ice was poured on top of him. It took quite a while for Naruto and Sakura to stop laughing and Sasuke to stop fuming (resulting in the ice to melt, getting Sasuke soaked from head to toe. Once everyone was done laughing, fuming, and chasing eachother around the tree, they tiredly walked to the tree swing.

"Um, well I really don't know how to start this. I'll just tell you now, whatever you do, don't interrupt me, ok?" started Naruto. "Something horrible happened to Konoha, and the way you now it Konoha was destroyed. The past is really blurry to most everyone and even if they do remember, most people would forget about their lives before they go to sleep or at least be deemed crazy. The only one who has the most knowledge of the past is me, but I don't remember huge chunks of it. Everything that is important is still there, so I'm gonna try to restore some of your memories using a jutsu that will hopefully replicate the memories of your past lives, it won't kill you or harm you, so don't give me that look! If you feel uneasy, then please say if you want out," Naruto drew in a deep breath, looking at the suddenly nervous faces of his two best friends.

Sasuke, with the most control, finally made up his mind. He slowly nodded his head, his way of saying he'd go for it. Sakura was still a little nervous. What Naruto was doing could be a blessing or a curse. Since something of this level is completely out of bounds in reality, finding out there's a way of easily recovering memories of your past lives seem extremely unreal. So, she voiced her thoughts.

"Oh, I can't do that yet. Your memories will come really slowly, sometimes repeating. I ain''t a total dummy, but that doesn't make me a genius!," was his reply, ending with a slightly embarrassed laugh. Sakura was slightly relieved.

"Alright", she thought. "If I choose to regain these memories, I'm risking messing up the future worse than whatever happened in the past. If I choose to remain ignorant, I might just get in the way of Naruto and Sasuke and end up being completely useless when they need help saving Konoha." Thoughts like these kept her from the final decision. Her "Inner Sakura" also added a few "useful" thoughts, but apparently "Inner Sakura" is very fickle. One second, she says to not take the risk. The next she says to show them what she's made of. After a long silence, she finally reached a decision.

"I better not regret this, Naruto."


	4. The Calmhearted

**As promised, this is chapter four(albeit late), which takes place nearly a year after Chapter 3. Like I said before, this story isn't really a priority and chances are that chapter 6 (I've been working on chapter 4 _and_ 5) will only come around summer time or even _later_ like this one. In any case, my writing style's different than what it was before, so I hope it doesn't show too much in this chapter. Hopefully, you guys enjoy reading! Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!**

Ch. 4

It's been about a year since that meeting between the three children. Konoha was as busy as ever, the Academy still teaching students the way of the ninja, and everything seems normal. However, no one seems to realize how different three of the citizens were, with the exception of the Hokage, who was well-informed of the situation between them.

Sasuke Uchiha spends more time at his family's graves and could sometimes be seen staring at the night sky with a searching look. He tries to hide his distress and his nights are full of memories that weren't really his. He distanced himself ever so slightly from the world. There's hardly a time when Sasuke truly smiles, for the dreams he has haunt him in more ways than one. He only ever shows any expression around his friends. Just a few months later, he bumped into the ever quiet Hinata Hyuuga. She was staring thoughtfully at a peaceful Naruto who was sleeping on a lunch bench and was quite frightened to be caught by Naruto's best friend, who heard her side of the story and agreed to help, ignoring the protests from the madly blushing Hyuuga heiress. Since then, Sasuke's been playing matchmaker, but no one stopped him because he started to really smile.

Sakura Haruno is a lot more independent. Her new personality seems to come from the dreams she has of a life as an almost hopeless fan girl and successful medic. She's still the best friend of Ino, but her relationship with her parents turned suddenly colder. People who knew the happy family were puzzled for a while, but no one spoke up asking what went wrong. Some say it was Sakura's "independent stage" that came early. Others say her parents didn't and couldn't accept the group of friends she hangs out with at school, but only the family members themselves truly know what happened, though people like Shikamaru Nara are able to guess what happened to them more accurately. Speaking of which, Sakura and Ino spend a plentiful amount of time with the Naras and Akamichis, especially with the two heirs, who have become quite good friends.

She also meets up with Sasuke and Naruto during lunch every week or so. In these little meetings, she often discusses her interest in helping those around her with social or sometimes medical, problems. Her topic usually strays off a little to describe how "anti-social" and "angst-y" Sasuke was. With this, he would retort how "clueless" and "socially dumb" Naruto was. Naruto would often ignore the jibes and pretend to not here a word, making Sakura giggle and Sasuke embarrassed.

Naruto Uzumaki seemed to have changed the least, though there were times he would express his guilt, especially to his good friend, Sasuke Uchiha. Even though his guilt goes with Sakura as well, Sasuke is the one with the darker memories that may have consumed him. Sometimes, he could see the other Sasuke's personality arise from anger, even though it couldn't have been possible. Even so, his best friends reassured him that the happy memories from the aftermath of such disasters were quite worth it. Still, Naruto wished he could have waited a little longer for his two friends to relive the past, but on the bright side, there is now there a rare bond the three individuals share and there simply wasn't anything like that in the world.

The one thing that they do know about this bond is that the old team 7 was finally back and hopefully here to stay.

**Saturday Morning in the Hokage Tower**

"You want me to do _what_!" Naruto had never been so surprised in his life. He couldn't believe his eyes when an ANBU member came and took him all the way across town to the Hokage Tower and all of a sudden, the third tells him he needs to move!

"You're crazy, old man! There's a reason why I'm in that side of the town, y' know? I lived there all my life and you want me to _move_?"

Sarutobi gave a long sigh before speaking. "Yes, I am asking you to move, but it's only temporarily. You are making a big deal out of this, which I can understand, but you must try to understand me. It is for good reason, I promise you. Besides, you do wish to spend more time with your friends, correct? Well here's a solution. I already made arrangements for an apartment. All I need to do is get you back to the city, there's barely any threats now. The assassination rate on you has become close to nothing over the last six months, so we just need to test it out. I promise that if you dislike the arrangement after the year is over, we can get you back home with no trouble at all. Please try, I've even made it possible for Sasuke to live nearby you, wouldn't it be nice to hang out with him and do whatever you scheming boys do? Besides, it could help you in the long run. Think about how much easier things would be if we could get to you faster."

"I thought of that already, old man. That's why I let Sasuke and Sakura keep their memories… well partly. The other reason ain't important yet! Anyways, I have the situation under control, that's why I let 'em have their memories early. If I gave 'em too late, they wouldn't believe me. At least as kids, we trust a little easier… and it's also got to do with how long it takes to reclaim all those memories. SO I don't really have much need to move."

"Not even if I make it an order to the ANBU as a mission?"

"You wouldn't."

Unfortunately, the aged Hokage _would_ and _did_, however odd it was that ANBU do D-rank missions.

Naruto was still annoyed that the Hokage was able to force him to move back to the center of the city. He _did_ find it more convenient and was enjoying life with his friends, but he was still uneasy. Although no harm was done to the village, he was still a threat because of people are still wary of him. Some just ignored him just so that there would be no trouble, others were simply afraid of the unknown, not knowing if he was a threat or not. The Third's Law kept everyone hushed up about the situation, but Kyuubi, even if smaller and -I daresay- cuter, it is still a very dangerous demon that is as strong as(or in some ways, stronger than ) the first one, he's just as, if not more, cunning and strong.

Sometimes, he'd hangout with Sasuke and they'd train, talk about boy stuff, do whatever seemed normal to them. Sometimes, they met up with Sakura or visited Ino at the flower shop, or see a movie. It wasn't that such things weren't fun-it was just something to get used to. Naruto was still hoping to return to the outskirts, but he knew it would be hard adjusting back after being given this "ideal" living.

Hopefully, this world that shouldn't exist will continue and thrive longer than the last.

"Hey, Sasuke, Sakura's in our class this year! Isn't that great?"

It was the first day back after a two month vacation and the warm spring sunshine bathed the school children in warmth. Flowers were in full bloom, making the air smell sweet. Standing in front of the board with various lists of names was a crowd of children, shoving to see who their classmates were and in what room. Up on the roof, looking down at the commotion below, two boys, who arrived earlier, leaned on the railing making idle talk of their goals for the new school year.

"Yeah, it makes things less complicated."

Naruto felt a little flare in his chest with that statement. He didn't know why, but he was suddenly irritable.

Turning to Sasuke, he said, "Couldn't you just say, 'Yeah, that's really cool!' or 'Yeah, now we can hang out together!' Instead, you say, 'Yeah, it makes things less complicated'"

"You know what I mean," said Sasuke exasperatedly. He faced Naruto, eyes showing irritation and frustration. "You know I can't express myself too well, it just so… awkward living another life at the same time or whatever this is. I bet Sakura feels it, too, and you wouldn't quite get it since it's the opposite for you. For you it's a fresh start, but for me and Sakura, its chaos!" Silence fell. For the first time in a long while, the usually comfortable silence was blown away by the tension in the air.

Naruto's eyes were wide with realization. He actually _hadn't_ considered this. Sasuke was right. He probably set his expectations too high.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke, I didn't mean it like that. I…"

"No I am," Sasuke was quick to respond, feeling guilty about what he implied to his friend. "I shouldn't have blown up on you like that, 'specially nothing as trivial as this."

"But-"

"No, it's my fault. I was just a bit... I dunno… overwhelmed by all the change." Naruto's eyes flashed with understanding. Sasuke turned a bit so he could lean against the railing, elbows supporting him at his side with a peaceful look on his face.

"Pretty soon, we'll officially be ninja and start out as genin. If it's anything like last time, we'd need to make sure everyone's prepared. You know how challenging it was to be a genin, it was even more trouble than one could possibly imagine, especially since the two of us were technically genin for years!" He cracked a barely noticeable grin to Naruto. "Naw, it was me who's at fault. Neither Sakura nor I regret our decisions to remember. I tell you this so many times and yet I imply otherwise. I'm such a hypocrite!" He gave a small laugh. For the first time in so long, Naruto saw a flash of the old Sasuke, the one that was burdened with past haunts and mistakes, trying to convince Naruto he wasn't the same as he was before, trying to force the world away from him. Naruto shook the thought out of his head. It's a different world now and he would make sure things were better.

The two boys felt exhausted and sighed loudly. Naruto turned back to Sasuke and smiled brightly.

"Well," he started. "It's nice to get all this straightened out. It's like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Anyways, who do you think our teacher is gonna be this year? I know Iruka-sensei is gonna teach the 10-year-olds, so it's not him."

"Well, what about Asuma-sensei? He's been teaching the class for quite a while now, so maybe he's going to teach our class. Unless he gets promoted of course…"

"Ha-ha… maybe," Naruto said dreamily. He looked at a bird flying high in the skies above them wondering what sort of life this would become.

As it would turn out, Asuma was _not_ their teacher that year. Sarutobi Asuma, who came was well known for his long-term mission at Konoha's Fire Temple, would be taking missions and being evaluated to be promoted to Jonin. Instead, Naruto had been very surprised to find that his new teacher was none other than Mizuki. Even though his past experience with the man turned out to be quite disastrous, Naruto knew better than to judge Mizuki now. A lot has changed in this time period, very few wars were fought this time, and wars that they _had_ talked about were often minor and about the development of Konoha. This, of course, was a _big_ contrast to his timeline, where war seemed to always be around the corner. You make one false step and the political field became a mine field.

His first day of school was pretty normal, Mizuki-sensei arranged the class into a seating chart, introduced himself, and talked about all the new things they were to learn this year. So far, there had been no malicious intent and Naruto made no effort to actually test the new teacher. As far as he could tell, Mizuki-sensei had been a lot more like Iruka-sensei and they were also friends. Naruto could sense no evil from his teacher no matter how hard he looked, so he decided to keep himself as unnoticeable as possible in hopes of getting along well in this new school year.

Having Sasuke and Sakura in his class actually helped him a lot. It was unfortunate that Ino couldn't be in the same class this year, and Shikamaru and Chouji were in another class as well. Shino was in this class and so was Hinata. Strangely enough, he hadn't expected Hinata to be in his class. He'd hardly ever seen her in these last couple of years. Sometimes he'd try sensing her presence, but he was never able to actually catch her. He'd heard from Sasuke that she is _still_ following him, but for some reason or another, despite his excellent training from the previous life, he'd never see her. His heart fluttered a little when he thought of her in the previous life and the tiny bit of guilt for not noticing her sooner was still there, but even though he'd tried his best to find her, something always came up. It seemed that whatever it was deciding the course of fate in this lifetime wanted them to meet in other ways.

At break, Sakura had brought some snacks which she intended to give to just Naruto and Sasuke, but somehow Mizuki-sensei found out that she brought taiyaki, something no one ever knew the odd teacher had even liked. Somehow, she ended up giving him all the taiyaki and only ended up saving the pocky for them to share. When they got back to the classroom, everyone else was surprised to see their teacher stuffing his face in the chocolate baked fish!

Due to all the craziness, Naruto had completely forgotten his plans to approach Hinata. He didn't want to embarrass her in front of other classmates, so he'd planned on catching her during break, which he obviously forgotten to do. Little did he know that he wouldn't have been able to find her even if he had remembered, she was in the office helping the people there with the mail.

In any case, Mizuki-sensei decided that since there wasn't much more to do that day, they'd spend the rest of the school day trying to get to everyone to talk about themselves. They'd created a class cabinet with Sasuke as President (though he had grudgingly accepted the title), Kyoko Tsukino as Vice-President (she had large glasses and looked to be very serious), Hinata Hyuuga as Secretary (everyone seemed to agree that Hinata was the most organized person in the class), and Kyosuke Renge as Treasurer (he was a fun guy to be around and was excellent at math to boot).

Sasuke himself wasn't pleased to be voted President and complained all the way to the tree at lunch. Sakura talked about how she was able to be intern at the hospital, although she's usually a receptionist for civilians. Naruto talked about how he couldn't wait to start learning about how to use a sword (a relatively new, but optional, lesson taught to eleven year olds to start learning about how to use a sword (a relatively new lesson taught to eleven year olds incase of emergency).

And faithfully as always, a shy girl peeked from behind a tree that she and her best friend, Shino, always met for lunch.

"Hinata," he started, "if you intend to actually talk to Naruto, the first step is to _approach him._ He is a good fellow student and will understand if you mess up. Also, you better get it over with quickly. I'm sure things will seem less awkward once you get over the first phase."

"How poetic," Shino said bluntly. "I understand your reasoning, even I cannot think of a logical reason as to why such occurrences happen. Just remember, even the moon gets to meet the sun every hundred years. You don't have a hundred years though. It's best to keep trying. One day, you'll both meet when you least expect it, I assure you."

"Shino, I keep trying, but I doubt we'll really be friends, not unless a miracle happened," Hinata sighed. "I'll try again." She was about to sneak out of her hiding spot when, as if on cue, a voice called out to her.

"Hinata-sama, might I have a word?" Whoever said it was easy to talk to someone definitely needs to fall in a pit.

Lunch ended soon enough and Mizuki had gone over the first real lesson of the year. Since it was the first day of school, the teachers usually never went over lessons, but it was a simple and fun lesson nevertheless. On the board he drew a chart that was organized to briefly describe each of the five ninja countries by official name, affinity, Hidden Village, and type of Kage. Then, after everyone pitched in to fill the spots, he split the class into 10 parts. Since there were exactly 30 students in the class, the students were split evenly. According to Mizuki, he took a look at everyone's school records and them up in a certain way. Each group had a country and although everyone was expecting there to be two groups per country, Konoha had 4 groups and Suna and Iwa had 2 groups, leaving Kumo and Kiri with one group. Sasuke ended up in Kumo, Sakura in Iwa, and Naruto in Suna.

The game they were playing was really all about strategy. In the middle of the room, Mizuki had a board game out that was really just a map of the five ninja countries outlined by territory. Each country had fleets, armies, and a squad of infiltration that could also serve as a negotiation squad. Konoha had very many armies, but only one fleet, Suna had the same, Kumo and Kiri both had more fleets than armies, but Iwa had the even amount of each.

The rules of the game were quite complicated, but after a few turns, everyone was getting the hang of it. "Secret negotiations" were being made and unfortunately, Sakura's teammates were arguing with each other, leading them to make a few silly mistakes that made Iwa lose a lot of its territory to Kiri and Konoha. Sasuke was in charge of fleets and his teammates were quite level-headed. Although they were able to take many ports from Kiri, it didn't stop Suna from infiltrating. Konoha may have had the most players, but it proved to be quite difficult to communicate. Naruto was in charge of Suna's "allies and foes", so he had naturally thought that allying with Konoha wasn't too bad an idea, however the groups in Konoha were very independent, making negotiations with Konoha rather difficult, yet somehow the Kiri group was able to negotiate an alliance with Konoha by giving Konoha's fleet a couple of ports. Next, he tried to ally with Kumo, which proved successful after giving back a bit of conquered land and offering them an army's assistance for a fleet's. After conquering more of Iwa and a few ports from Konoha, he tried to ally with Kiri.

Kiri's negotiator was Hinata, so Naruto naturally thought he'd finally get to talk to her. Unfortunately, before he could make a move towards the group for the next turn, Mizuki declared the game was over and he'd announce the winning country first thing the next morning. So, both Naruto and Hinata were met with disappointment (even though neither knew the other's feelings).

Overall, the game was quite fun, between moaning and cheering, everyone went home talking about the game. Sakura complained that with her teammates her team definitely lost. Sasuke said he was grouped with some reasonable classmates, so he felt Kumo still had a chance. Naruto said he and the Suna team tried their best, but was quite confident that Kiri had won the game.

"Huh? Why's that?" asked Sakura, slightly surprised.

"Aw, c'mon Sakura-chan! You were the one who helped me on all that boring political stuff, you should know already!" exclaimed Naruto. He had a wide grin on his face that practically screamed "I-know-something-and-you-don't!" It only made Sakura more frustrated.

"Come on Naruto," said Sasuke. "You know politics better than the both of us. I mean, you were without a doubt the _best_ Hokage _ever_."

"Flattery will get you nowhere Sasuke!" Naruto sang with a smile.

"What about the Konoha team? Why can't they be the winners?"

Naruto could only grin wider, deciding to turn and walk away, eyes gleaming with mischief as he whistled a little tune. Sakura's eyes widened a bit before recognizing the song. The subtle hint he gave answered the question, but Sasuke had no idea what it really meant. Glancing at Sasuke, she gave him a reassuring smile, which he didn't notice while trying to get Naruto's attention.

"H-Hey, Naruto! Wait up! You didn't answer my question!" he said catching up to him. Sakura just kept smiling softly, chuckling as Sasuke started chasing Naruto to get the answer. They might have older minds, but it wouldn't prevent them from having fun as children.


End file.
